Being singer is different than being an actor, where you call up sources from your own experience that you can apply to whatever Shakespeare drama you're in. But an actor is pretending to be somebody, a singer isn't. And that's the difference. Singers today have to sing songs where there's very little emotion involved. That and the fact that they have to sing hit records from years gone by doesn't leave a lot of room for any kind of intelligent creativity.

As long as you give my friend Jonah Lehrer a free pizza, I'll write a song about your restaurant.

Behind every beautiful thing, there's some kind of pain.

Walkin' through the leaves fallin' from the trees, Feelin' like a stranger nobody sees.

We all like motorcycles to some degree.

I didn't know whether to duck or to run, so I ran.

Ain't no use jiving, ain't no use joking, everything is broken.